Indoor electric contact grills have grown substantially in popularity among the consuming public and many models are commercially available through retail outlets. There is a continuing need to provide electric household grills which are attractive, safe, and convenient to use. Household contact grills have a lower housing with feet or pads for supporting the grill on a counter top and an upper housing pivotally mounted for rotation about a horizontal pivot axis on the upper housing. The lower and upper housing support respective upper and lower grill plates. The lower cooking plate usually has surfaces that slope downwardly away from a proximal location near the pivot axis to a distal location which is considered to be at the front of the grill. Accordingly, liquids, fats and small food particles that are byproducts (herein after called "liquid cooking byproducts") of the cooking process slide or flow down the sloping surfaces of the lower cooking plate to a collection vessel at the front of the grill, which may constitute a recess formed in the lower grill plate or may be separate from the lower grill plate. A common practice for household contact grills is to provide a liquid byproduct outlet at the front of the grill and a collection tray is placed by the user underneath the liquid outlet. Such an arrangement is not altogether desirable because of the greater depth of counter space required for the grill and the collection tray and because the tray is positioned such that the user can easily accidentally bump against the tray.
Typical household electric contact grills have calrod heaters for the grill plates that are preset to a single operating temperature and a timer that times the operation of the grill. The timers are usually spring-operated timers that are adjusted by the user to sound a signal after an adjusted period of time has elapsed. For the convenience of the user, the timer is preferably located at the front of the grill.
Most household electric contact grills are suited only for use as a contact grill. The prior art also includes so-called grooved griddles or hot plates that have only an upwardly-facing grill plate. In this day and age, the number of electric kitchen appliances available for use has placed kitchen counter and storage spaces at a premium. An appliance that could serve two different functions, namely a contact grill and a grooved griddle, could provide substantial advantages in cost and storage space relative to appliances that can perform only one function.